Scattered Thoughts . . .

F or the past few days, we've had water heater problems.  There is never a good time for home maintenance problems but this is a lousy week for us to have an added thing that must be done as soon as possible.   First, I made a trip to Lowes to pick up a heating element.  A bad heating element would have been the typical problem so that is what I replaced first.  Even if the source of the problem wasn't the element, it wouldn't be a bad idea to install a new one so I did that.  Theoretically, a new one should be more efficient than one that has been used for many years.  Our water heater is now about 15 years old so it is near the end of its life span.  Actually, it is probably beyond its life span already.   With the heating element on hand, I then went about draining the water heater which was a bit time consuming.  I again had to clear a path to the back wall of the house (like I did to run water out to our outdoor shower a c...

W e've been having problems with our WiFi router overheating for well over a year.  The entertainment cabinet that I built into the side of our fireplace unit had no ventilation at all other than the shelves being open to the front of the unit.  Inside that cabinet, especially in the summer months, the temperature would probably get into the triple digits quite easily and far too often.  This consistently has caused wireless issues requiring numerous reboots and even occasional cool-down periods.   Consequently, I highly suspect that the wireless router is now damaged and I've known for quite a few months that we are on borrowed time for this rather vital piece of hardware.  I say it is vital because Sheila needs the internet for work.   Lately, we need to reboot far more often than ever before and our WiFi has been intermittent for many months.  I knew the solution was to purchase a new router system and to install an exhaust fan into the si...

Little by little, we're adding more to our Alexa-enabled home automation.  I had written previously about purchasing and installing an Ecobee4 Smart Thermostat. This was a project that required some research because our heating system and furnace were not compatible with these new Smart Thermostats. I figured out a way to make it all work and it only required some rewiring and a little bit of adaptation to our system. The most difficult part of that project was that I needed to learn far more than I wanted about heating systems and our particular old furnace.  This new thermostat is Alexa-enabled (Amazon's voice activated assistant) which means it can be controlled by voice as well as be controlled remotely with our cellphones, tablets or a computer. This allows us to monitor the temperatures in the house from anywhere while we are out of town. Also, since this particular Smart Thermostat is Alexa-enabled, we knew that installing this particular thermostat would open the...

I've been trying to catch up with the many tasks on my to-do list as the season changes toward winter. One of the things I have been focused on in recent is our furnace since winter is fast approaching.  I already did some annual cleaning of the furnace... checked and cleaned electrical contacts inside the ignition... and then turned my attention toward our thermostat. Our thermostat has been a little bit of a frustration for quite some time. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. We replace batteries regularly and have to clean contacts inside this old programmable thermostat approximately twice each season.  Programming that old thermostat is a pain in the butt with tiny switches on the circuit board and a very clumsy interface. Usually, we just avoid changing the programming because it is such a pain in the butt and, instead, just make do with the main programming. Whenever we need a change, we simply manually change the temperature and use the hold button which d...

I've spent the past 18 days struggling with chronic and serious health issues related to a failed attempt at a colonoscopy. It has been a rough few weeks and a few weeks of nothingness... just trying to get through one moment to the next.  After constant and consistent extra medications, I am finally beginning to feel more like myself again. I'm not feeling "good"... I am not anywhere near what is considered "normal" for me... but I am feeling decent enough to safely attempt a few small chores around the house. I even started back on a very light version of my daily physical therapy for my spinal injuries (which is much needed!).   Needless to say, after all this time of nothingness, there is a lot to be done around here because everything, other than my health, has been ignored and neglected.  I did some preventive maintenance on my furnace... then I had to get the thermostat in working order again. The heat kicked on after this little bit of wor...